His Christmas performance last year was a sell-out success, and now Roland Gift is planning on returning for the final days of Hull’s City of Culture year.

Roland Lee Gift will make a welcome return to Hull with a special Christmas Show at the Welly Club in Hull on Saturday, December 2, with pre-sale tickets available Thursday, September 7 from Hull Box Office.

Roland Lee Gift was born in Birmingham, but grew up in Hull, where his mother, Pauline, ran a second-hand clothes shop. He was educated at Kelvin Hall School in Hull and first came to prominence on the Hull music scene with local Ska band the Akrylyk Vyktymz (later the Akrylykz).

Roland Gift fronted the Fine Young Cannibals

His work with the Akrylykz brought him to the attention of Andy Cox and David Steele of The Beat, and they asked him to be the lead singer of their new band the Fine Young Cannibals

The band's debut album Fine Young Cannibals was released in 1985, with two UK hit singles, Johnny Come Home and a cover of Elvis Presley's Suspicious Minds. These two songs also became hits internationally, charting in the top 40 in Europe, Canada and Australia.

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Fine Young Cannibals continued their international success with the 1989 album The Raw & The Cooked, which included the singles She Drives Me Crazy and Good Thing, both US number ones.

The Raw & The Cooked included three songs the band had recorded for the film Tin Men, and their cover of the Buzzcocks' Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't Have Fallen In Love With) recorded for the film Something Wild.

Roland Gift is returning to Hull in December

In 1990 Roland was named by People magazine as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" in the world, but the Fine Young Cannibals broke up in 1992, seeing Roland take a break from the music industry until 2002.

It was then he released a self-titled solo album featuring the single It's Only Money, and in 2013 he toured as a guest vocalist with the Jools Holland Band. He continues to perform as a solo artist with his band.